Meet The Makeup Bag Brand That’s A Favorite Of Tarte Cosmetics

Has anyone ever complimented you on your cosmetic bag? If not, that’ll change if you pick up a Henry Charles creation.

The emerging brand bridging designer handbags and beauty accessories has become a staple at Tarte Cosmetics and for makeup artists such as Claire Balest and Stephanie Koutikas. Launched early last year by Candice Capps-Tate, who’s crafted handbags for retailers the likes of Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Anthropologie, with a tight assortment of seven options priced from $19 to $138, Henry Charles customizes shapes to store makeup merchandise, and painstakingly chooses materials to address safety and function.

“I truly can’t say enough good things about the whole Henry Charles line. Every person that sees my makeup bag, whether on social media or in-person, asks where it’s from and where they can buy one,” says Tarte social media assistant manager Deanna Dini Burns. “My favorite makeup bag of all time is the Large Deluxe Cosmetic. It’s perfect for my on-the-go beauty routine because it keeps everything so nicely organized which makes everything so easy to find.”

henry charles cosmetic bags
Henry Charles offers premium cosmetic bags priced from $19 to $138.

The Large Deluxe Cosmetic epitomizes Henry Charles’s exhaustive approach. Capps-Tate details the patent-pending clutch took two years to develop. It contains nine compartments, each with its own purpose. For example, there’s an outer mesh pocket ideal for makeup applicators like the Beautyblender and an inner pouch that’s zippable to protect other products in the bag from spills. The clutch is roomy enough for ample pro palettes and bottles to sit upright. It’s made from vegan leather and features a water-resistant lining.

“I really want to own the beauty organization market and show that your luxury makeup deserves to go in high-quality accessory pieces. These are supposed to be sculptural pieces that you would be proud to put on your vanity at home or carry around with you as an accessory. These are makeup bag-handbag hybrids.”

Across Henry Charles’s collection, Capps-Tate focuses on the proper size and volume for mascaras, shadows, blushes, foundations, tools and more to enable customers to downsize their makeup bag (or, in many people’s cases, Ziploc bag) stockpiles. “You don’t need a million cosmetics bags. You need the right cosmetic bag. When I design the bag, I design them around the products that are going inside of them. There is really no thought put into most bags,” she says. “It’s hard to find a makeup bag that fits brushes, especially pro length brushes, but four of our bags fit pro length brushes.”

Henry Charles’s goal is to banish embarrassment attached to makeup bags as a result of the disposable varieties that reign in the beauty accessories segment. “I really want to own the beauty organization market and show that your luxury makeup deserves to go in high-quality accessory pieces,” says Capps-Tate. “These are supposed to be sculptural pieces that you would be proud to put on your vanity at home or carry around with you as an accessory. These are makeup bag-handbag hybrids. We didn’t just design a cosmetic bag that’s one big pouch that you throw stuff in.”

Henry Charles cosmetic bags
Henry Charles founder and creative director Candice Capps-Tate

Operating on her own, Capps-Tate has placed Henry Charles, a name that pairs her grandfather’s given name Charles with a regal-sounding appellation, in a small coterie of e-tailers, subscription services and retailers, including Amazon, Camera Ready Cosmetics, Miss Palettable and Ipsy. The brand’s yearly revenues are under $500,000 at the moment, but it’s on the move with collaborations in the works. Capps-Tate says, “We want to grow as much as we can without ever sacrificing the brand integrity.”

“We carefully design our bags and source materials with the highest standards to ensure questionable materials such as PVC aren’t touching your makeup or brushes. You wouldn’t sleep on a PVC pillow, so why should your brushes? We’ll never stop looking for safer materials without sacrificing performance.”

Part of what’s critical to the brand integrity is to rely on first-class materials. Henry Charles doesn’t use polyvinyl chloride or PVC, the common plastic polymer. Capps-Tate tests materials extensively to check that they’ll hold up with wear. She also selects materials that don’t contain suspect compounds because those compounds could leach onto makeup brushes and wind up on faces.

“Most people wouldn’t think to question the toxicity of their makeup bag, but they should. We carefully design our bags and source materials with the highest standards to ensure questionable materials such as PVC aren’t touching your makeup or brushes,” says Capps-Tate. “You wouldn’t sleep on a PVC pillow, so why should your brushes? We’ll never stop looking for safer materials without sacrificing performance.”

Henry Charles cosmetic bag
When designing cosmetic bags, Capps-Tate pays particular attention to their shapes and materials.

As Capps-Tate guides her business forward, partnerships are expected to be key drivers, both for the Henry Charles brand and for cosmetics bags she produces on a private-label basis that account for roughly half of her annual turnover. Different from direct cosmetics competitors, her beauty accessories firm can easily affiliate with a makeup brand for mutual benefit. Cosmetic bags are prevalent holiday and wedding gift ancillaries.

“If a brand has a really strong identity, we love to incorporate that in the color scheme, artwork or possibly charity donations,” says Capps-Tate. “I’m really good at making bags that are true to brands, sourcing the fabrication that’s right for them and telling a story behind why they are relevant for the brand.”